A man charged with trying to beat his financial-wizard wife to death with a dumbbell can use $400,000 of their marital funds to pay for his defense lawyers, a Manhattan judge has ruled.

In a decision made public yesterday, state Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann ordered Theresa Havell to fork over $400,000 in legal fees – as well as $50,000 in living expenses – to estranged husband Aftab Islam, who goes on trial later this month on charges he bashed her in the head with a 10-pound dumbbell in their East 78th Street townhouse.

Havell was due to hand over the money this week, but Appellate Division Judge David Saxe ruled she has to pay only $215,000 until a full appeals panel can review the decision.

The 1999 attack left her with a fractured skull, broken teeth and a broken jaw, nose and finger – but Silbermann, who’s presiding over the couple’s divorce case, said she had “no legal basis to deny” Islam’s request for money from their $10 million marital estate.

Havell, 53, who has returned to work at Havell Capital Management, didn’t return calls. Her lawyer, Ellen Gesmer, refused comment, but is appealing the order.

Islam and Havell have six children and had been married for 21 years at the time of the attack, and, under state law, Islam could be entitled to up to half of their joint $10 million estate when they’re finally divorced.

Silbermann, the state’s top matrimonial judge, called the $450,000 award “an advance on his share of the equitable distribution of marital assets.” The judges said the amount was minimal considering the size of the estate.

Islam’s lawyers claim he was temporarily insane at the time of the attack – under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs and still distraught that Havell had asked him for a divorce weeks earlier.

“The drugs made me crazy,” Islam, 58, a self-described pacifist, told police after he was arrested, adding that he “only hit her [with the dumbbell] four or five times, and not very hard.”

If Islam is convicted of attempted murder, Silbermann could substantially reduce his share of the millions at stake in the divorce case – but she said there is no existing case law that would allow her to totally shut him out.

One of the city’s top divorce lawyers, Bernard Clair, said that “advancing a small portion of an estate” is common practice.

Islam, a former executive in the securities market, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.